Understanding Farm Drone Insurance
In the last five years, drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), have seen exponential advancement and crossed many regulatory hurdles here in Canada. In tandem, the agricultural community has begun implementing this technology more than ever before! With greater adoption, many farmers want to protect their investment and one of the first considerations is adding farm drone insurance to their larger farm policy.
Farm Drone Insurance Benefits
How can farm drone insurance benefit you? Well, generally farmers will use farm drones to fly over their property and fields to:
- Scan for water and fertilizer efficiency using thermal sensors
- Map the area
- Monitor remote parts of the property
- Monitor livestock
- Check crop health
- Spray fertilizer and pesticides, where permitted by local authorities
Venturing far away with your drone to complete these tasks always comes with risks, even for an experienced pilot.
Additionally, with costs ranging anywhere from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands for a single agricultural drone, adding insurance coverage can help you protect your investment and transfer the risk to your insurance provider.
What is Covered
A standard farm policy may exclude drones and UAVs. Similar to insurance for farm machinery like tractors and combines, farmers can add coverage to protect their farm drones through a specific extension.
Generally, an extension for a farm drone may protect it from perils like:
- Fire
- Explosion
- Impact
- Collision
- Theft
- Vandalism
Coverage may also extend to include debris clean up or to protect your spare drone parts. As always, review any new coverages with your insurance broker to understand how it may apply and what is not covered.
With Mutual Fire Insurance, you can add coverage for qualifying Drones to your FarmPROTECT™ or Hobby FarmPROTECT™ policy! Chat with your MFI broker to learn more.
